Usability Centre wins Nationwide a National Award for Service

Nationwide Building Society has won the overall 2002 Service Excellence Award, beating 16 other finalist organisations, for its outstanding service differentiation and delivery. Nationwide also won the Unisys and Management Today magazine Financial Service award.

An in-depth evaluation and analysis of 220 companies was carried out by a panel of judges consisting of Unisys consultants, representatives from Management Today, Cranfield School of Management and previous winners. Where possible, the site visits were supplemented by some 'mystery shopper' activity. Nationwide won the award for a number of initiatives and achievements from the last two years including:

* the work Nationwide does in terms of finding out what its employees and customers think about products and services;
* Nationwide's 'usability centre' where trained staff are able to observe customers' reactions to new literature or technology designed to be used in branches;
* a strong record of collecting, analysing and acting on customer and employee feedback;
* the lengths to which Nationwide go to discover and meet customer requirements.

Brian Hadfield, managing director of Unisys said: 'Our research shows that customers will often walk after just one bad experience. Service delivery can be the differentiating factor in whether or not a business is successful, so companies really need to excel in this area above all else. Nationwide does this extremely well, which is particularly significant at a time when many financial services providers seem to be under constant criticism over their lack of customer service.'

David Followell, Nationwide's usability manager, is delighted at this recognition for the centre which he established for the building society. Followell points out that users of Nationwide services are also the mutual society's members and this knowledge permeates the working culture of the organisation.

More on how Nationwide usability work operates can be found in the UN news story Usability Managers talk Promotion from Within, which reports on a session at EUPA/HCI2002 co-presented by Followell.

Associated Link: Nationwide Building Society

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